Heyo! Been another while. The theme of this devlog is going to be "backwards". What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes you make a decision, say something, and then change your mind literally 5 minutes later...

I have some confessions to make.

That elemental interaction diagram from the last post? I threw it together in a few minutes to describe to myself how I want things to work, then I quickly realised things caaaan't quite work that way. You see...

MOST OF THE ENEMIES IN THE GAME AREN'T CLEARLY ELEMENTAL.

I don't know how this avoided me. Then I realised, of the enemies that are clearly easily definable as a certain element, most of them wouldn't make sense to follow the diagram... what is a sand themed enemy? Is it Terra? Sand is kinda natural and earthy... it's a desert, so should it be Flame? That doesn't quite feel right either.

So, basically I had to throw the diagram out within minutes of making it. I instead decided sand should be resistant to both Terra and Flame, which means... it's not really weak to Ice either? I guess? This is kinda confusing (for the record, they are weak to ice).

The general idea of that diagram remains, fire does beat ice, ice beats terra, and terra beats fire (sometimes), but most enemies are on a case by case basis because it just doesn't apply to any of them!

On a less "I'm going insane thinking about this" note, while I was compiling all the tweets for the earlier devlogs I noticed that a lot of early things have completely changed. There are big changes, obviously, but a lot of smaller ones too that I've completely forgotten about. Subtle item stat changes, items being completely reworked, skill changes, etc. I honestly regret announcing the game as early as I did because basically nothing from the early days remains at this point.

Specials used to be called Breaks.

Energy Points used to be called Caelum Energy.

The Caelum itself is now called the Cael.

I once mentioned I had an idea about doubling the number of endings from 4 to 8. This had been dialled back to just 3 (arguably 4).

Basically, I need to learn to shut up. When/if I start working on a second game I'll avoid mentioning any specifics until the game is almost done.

Anyway, once we hit July this game will have been in development for 5 years. I'm not letting that happen. This game will be DONE before then. I know, bold claims from the person that has taken 5 years to make as much as I already have... but I'm committed. I am not letting this hit 5 years. You know it's serious, because I've even been pulling out ChatGPT to help suggest ideas for enemy skills that would otherwise be boring to make.

I should probably get back to working on the game now. I've had it open in the background for the last few hours and I've made maybe two enemy skills that are needed for a single encounter. But, I promise, this will be done before 5 years. Promise!